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Chapter 211: The Vendor

"I have transcended such vulgar interests. You don't have to look at me with that expression," Chu Liang said helplessly.

Lin Bei and Shang Ziliang had been looking at Chu Liang with a very amazed expression ever since he inquired about the location of the red-light district and made his way there. It was an expression that seemed to say... I didn't expect that you, with your prim and proper appearance, would be this sort of person.

"Ah, true, true." Shang Ziliang nodded repeatedly. "We may be visiting brothels, but we must do so with a critical eye."

Lin Bei nodded as well and chimed in, "That's right. The whole street here is filled with pitiful poverty-stricken women that don't have enough clothes to cover their bodies. What's wrong with us spending money to help them?!"

"..." Chu Liang was rendered speechless for a moment.

Then he quickly said, "We're here on official business, so put away your lecherous faces."

After that, Chu Liang entered the largest brothel.

There were very few people out at night due to the recent bizarre incidents of people being found dead with their hearts gouged out. Consequently, the brothel was quite empty of customers. So, when the beautiful young women standing by the brothel's entrance saw the three young men, they greeted the men warmly and welcomed them inside.

Chu Liang hurriedly waved his hand to refuse their services. He instead found a table and ordered a fruit platter and some snacks. The three of them just sat at the table for the time being.

Once things got quiet at the table, Lin Bei said, "You're the one who speaks the most virtuously, yet you were the one who entered the fastest. I usually hesitate before going to a brothel, afraid of being seen by someone I know. But you don't seem bothered by that at all."

"It's my first time at a brothel. My father never lets me come to places like this." Shang Ziliang's eyes were bright with excitement as he looked around. "Big Bro, I'll follow you for the rest of my life!"

"Let's not talk about that for now." Chu Liang lowered his voice and beckoned his two companions to lean toward him. "I'm here to investigate a diabolical cultivator."

"Oh, you don't need to pretend. It's just us here after all," Lin Bei commented with a smirk.

"I went through all the casefiles this afternoon, and I found that although the victims had been found in various parts of the city, all of them had been killed at around midnight. Misty Waters City is under curfew at this time, so it's unusual for people to be wandering outside," Chu Liang explained. "Those that roam around outside alone at that time of night are most likely people of a certain class."

Lin Bei immediately added, "Literati! Men of culture!"

Chu Liang continued, "That's right. Moreover, the brothels here charge extra for overnight stays, but most people wouldn't need to stay here for such a long time..."

"If it were me, I definitely wouldn't die since I'd stay here until dawn," Lin Bei muttered.

"Me too," Shang Ziliang chimed in quickly.

"Haaa..." Chu Liang let out a soft sigh, interrupting their digression.

Shang Ziliang promptly resumed his previous train of thought and asked, "So, does that mean they go home at night?"

"Yes. There are soldiers patrolling during curfew, but experienced literati can usually evade them. Earlier, I asked the soldiers guarding the city gates about it. Even if the literati get caught, they'll just get let off with a fine as long as they haven't committed a crime," Chu Liang said. "This makes the literati perfect targets for the diabolical cultivator."

"That damn diabolical cultivator!" Lin Bei exclaimed angrily, showing a deep sense of empathy for the literati.

"He's targeting literati that are on their way home, so he definitely won't be surveying the whole city looking for them. That's why the red-light district must be his starting point," Chu Liang said quietly. "He may even be doing the same thing as us, waiting here until nightfall."

Hearing that, Lin Bei and Shang Ziliang suddenly tensed up, and their breathing became heavy.

...

Li Si was standing in the middle of the street at his stall, selling beef offal. He tended to the boiling pot of the offal in front of him.

Li Si was short, thin, and seemingly weak. Passersby paid no attention to him. Nor did they notice the murderous glint in his eyes.

Business was unexpectedly good today. There were fewer people visiting the red-light district, but the number of vendors that dared to set up stalls had also decreased drastically, so Li Si's stall was the only one in the area.

No one could have imagined that such a seemingly honest and hardworking street vendor would turn actually be a heart-gouging fiend that had killed seven people.

Even Li Si himself couldn't have imagined it.

For the past thirty years, Li Si had lived a simple life. He had a small house that wasn't very sturdy, and he lived in it with his rough and ferocious wife. Every evening, he would push a cart into the city and sell snacks in the red-light district. Then he would hurry home at dawn and sleep during the daytime.

His heart had remained unmoved even as he watched extravagant customers visit the brothels every day. Li Si had felt that he was living in a totally different world from the finely dressed noblemen and the beautifully dressed women, who looked like blossoming flowers swaying in the breeze. They had been so close yet so far.

Li Si's feelings had stayed the same until one day ten years ago.

That day, a thunderstorm ran rampant in the sky, which had turned black like ink. On his way home, Li Si pushed his little cart into a cave to seek shelter from the storm. However, he accidentally fell into a large river.

It wasn't the first time he had sought shelter in this cave, but he hadn't known there was such a dark and cold river in it. Li Si was swept along by the currents of the river, and when he was finally able to climb ashore, he found himself in a strange place.

It was dark, cold, and empty. Bones were scattered everywhere, making it seem like the netherworld.

This was where Li Si found a book, which surprisingly contained information on cultivation. It was for a cultivation technique! Moreover, the technique didn't require the cultivator to have a high level of aptitude for cultivating; anyone could use this technique.

Li Si couldn't believe that he was this lucky. Was the heavens trying to save this insignificant life of his?

However, the cultivation technique was an extremely evil one. The first step was to kill a person.

Li Si's heart pounded as he read the book. He realized that this was probably the rumored diabolical cultivation technique. He couldn't let anyone else find out about it.

When Li Si stopped reading and raised his head, he realized that the thunderstorm had ceased. Furthermore, there was no sign of a river anywhere. He was in a graveyard on a barren mountain.

Everything else had changed, but the book was still in his hands.

When Li Si returned home, his wife hit and scolded him for losing the cart. Li Si was enraged, and a viciousness rose from the depths of his heart. He killed his wife straightaway, using her as a stepping stone for his cultivation.

Thus, Li Si embarked on the path of cultivation. The diabolical cultivation technique allowed him to advance very quickly. Furthermore, he didn't need to acquire any resources to advance; he just needed to keep murdering more people. During this process, Li Si's mind became increasingly twisted.

Li Si had rarely ever gotten angry during the last few decades. Yet, had been filled with hatred ever since he began cultivating this diabolical technique. He hated his ugly wife, high-ranking officials, literati, beautiful women, his low status... However, this hatred might not have been caused by the technique; it might have stemmed from the seed of hatred that had already been growing in his mind. Li Si hadn't even realized that he hated these bright and beautiful people so immensely.

Now, he had power as well as fury.

It had taken him ten years to get to the Core Formation stage. During those ten years, he had killed continuously, taking the lives of many. He'd committed all those murders in the village beside the city and left long intervals between the murders. That had allowed him to escape getting caught despite all those mysterious deaths. In fact, his existence hadn't even been discovered yet.

Li Si derived a great sense of pleasure from committing this ongoing massacre.

Nevertheless, the massacre did arouse some suspicion. Many people moved away from the village where Li Si resided, and those who remained didn't dare venture out alone.

Li Si needed to kill more people to form his core, so he decided to choose his victims from the city, targeting the people he had always loathed.

He had managed to stay undiscovered by being careful and discreet with his murders. Nonetheless, without a storage enchanted tool, the best Li Si could do was preserve the hearts he had extracted like he preserved pork. They couldn't be kept for very long before they went bad.

Li Si needed to speed things up. He still needed to kill two more people—just two more and he would have an opportunity to form his core. Then he would be able to leave Misty Waters City and venture into the world.

His gaze turned dark and icy as he stared straight ahead at two people. One was a wealthy big-bellied man, and the other was his servant, who wore green clothes and a small hat. The servant was driving a carriage, taking his master out of the red-light district.

Li Si thought, Once I'm done with these two, I can stop.

1. It means the arrival of spring (the season), which can also mean youth, love, and lust. ☜